This song has been my favorite REM song for such a long time, and I really LOVE REM and I LOVE this album, but after I heard that it was about Kurt Cobain's suicide it had so much more meaning. It really has some of the most haunting lyrics ever...the best of which are (and I am going to change the punctuation to how I think it really should be):
I've got tar on my feet, and I can't see all the birds look down and laugh at me, clumsy crawling out of my skin.
With the punctuation that way, as opposed to how it's listed here, it's like he's stuck and he can't look up to see that everyone is making fun of him but he knows he is a fool, and even the birds are better than him and he wishes he could just get away from himself. Such a sad thought...Michael Stipe is a sensitive person, he was a friend of Kurt's, he must have really known his pain as much as a third party can, and he really felt a loss when he was gone.
Beyond that, the distortion is beautiful...seriously, just beautiful....
This song has been my favorite REM song for such a long time, and I really LOVE REM and I LOVE this album, but after I heard that it was about Kurt Cobain's suicide it had so much more meaning. It really has some of the most haunting lyrics ever...the best of which are (and I am going to change the punctuation to how I think it really should be): I've got tar on my feet, and I can't see all the birds look down and laugh at me, clumsy crawling out of my skin. With the punctuation that way, as opposed to how it's listed here, it's like he's stuck and he can't look up to see that everyone is making fun of him but he knows he is a fool, and even the birds are better than him and he wishes he could just get away from himself. Such a sad thought...Michael Stipe is a sensitive person, he was a friend of Kurt's, he must have really known his pain as much as a third party can, and he really felt a loss when he was gone.
Beyond that, the distortion is beautiful...seriously, just beautiful....